Ways to improve my ecosystem experiment

[zacheyp]

Last april, i decided to make an ecosystem using no electricity. It was great. I had guppys, elodea, duckweed and snails. It was a 10 gallon tank and i placed it in front of a window. The tank stayed clean and the fish had 3 genarations of babies. During the power outage in october my house got very very cold and the fish died. I am now ready to do no electricty ecosystem 2.0! I want more types of fish and plants and i want to keep it in a 10 gallon tank, any ideas? My goal is for this system to be self sustained for over a year!

 

[George9]

I've never seen anyone attempt a tank without electricity. Im interested in seeing how it turns out.

 

[Mumma.of.two]

Do you plan on doing water changes on this 'ecosystem'?

 

[zacheyp]

in my previous tank, i never took out water, however i did replace water that evaporated, do you know of any fish that can survive in colder waters and in 10 gal?

 

[Hobgob]

In highschool we made one for our environment and resource management class but we didn't use a tank. We used two, two liter bottles. It survived for a year and a half I'd say

 

[zacheyp]

are there any fish that can survive colder waters??

 

[George9]

are there any fish that can survive colder waters??

How cold?

 

[zacheyp]

room temp

 

[George9]

room temp

I would say goldfish, but not in a ten gallon (especially without a filter). Guppies a tropical fish, so it's no go on them.

A Betta can live in room temp water. That's pretty much the only one I could think of. And even they do better with a filter and a heater.

Pretty much all fish kept in tanks need a filter and a heater. There's very little to choose from.

 

[zacheyp]

that room has a temp of like 68, does that help?

 

[jetajockey]

I'd go with something small and subtropical, look into least killifish, mosquitofish, or pygmy killifish. If you don't mind feeding bloodworms or live foods then go with pygmy sunfish.

 

[George9]

that room has a temp of like 68, does that help?

I can't think of any (if there are) off the top of my head. Maybe someone else will chime in with ideas.


Your options are very limited

 

[zacheyp]

will the fish listed above breed in captivity?

 

[jetajockey]

Yep, if conditions are right.

 

[zacheyp]

yay, the premise of this expirament is reproduction and self sustainment, which plants in addition to elodea and duckweed would you reccomend?

 

[redsea]

will the fish listed above breed in captivity?

I barely know anything about Killies, but I believe that they will breed in captivity.

I believe that Mosquitofish are livebearers, so they are easy to breed.

 

[jetajockey]

Hornwort is another good one, but you may have issues keeping plants growing under duckweed. Water sprite works as well.

If you have some light coming in from the side it will help.

How are you defining 'self sustaining'?

 

[redsea]

yay, the premise of this expirament is reproduction and self sustainment, which plants in addition to elodea and duckweed would you reccomend?

Now, I am just guessing here, because I don't know a lot about plants. LOL, I figured I could try to help though.

I know Java Moss is pretty easy to care for, and it requires low-light, so maybe that would be a good choice. Again, I am not sure though.

 

[zacheyp]

self sustaining meaning all that i do is replace evaporated water, are snails the only alage eaters that i could keep?

 

[jetajockey]

In that case I probably wouldn't recommend any animals in there at all. They might live for a while, but conditions wouldn't be very good for them without somewhat regular water changes and some other source of food besides plants and maybe snails. If you were keeping it outside then they could get some sustenance from critters that fall in, but indoors that's not going to work.